Newbie wideouts starting to catch on

Kamara, Tate experience growing pains for Irish

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Along any learning curve comes a point where instructors remove the figurative training wheels.

It was about then that Golden Tate, a freshman playing receiver for the first time in Notre Dame's preseason camp, figuratively careened off the curb and into a parked car.

"The first couple of days were disastrous," Tate said.

Tate was a high school running back.

"The first few snaps when I was actually on my own, the depth was wrong, sometimes I was on the wrong side, I was supposed to be on the ball when I wasn't -- it was really bad. Now it's getting a lot better."

Progress, of course, is a relative matter for the 1-7 Irish. The final four weeks of a woebegone season are, in some ways, an extended showcase for Tate and fellow freshman wideout Duval Kamara, who seem the likeliest in-house candidates to provide a much-needed game-breaking element at receiver -- at some point.

"It's time to show some progress," Irish receivers coach Rob Ianello said.

Tate and Kamara have played in all eight games for the Irish. That, however, underscores the Irish's problems because neither is remotely a finished product. Kamara ranks third on the team with 19 receptions and is listed as a starter on the depth chart this week. Tate has just five catches, but he has averaged 25.2 yards on them.

Still, ask them when the college game began to slow down for them and they might refer to October.

"[It's] just too much thinking and not just playing," Kamara said. "Being young, you're worried about too many things instead of just playing the game.

"As time goes by, you get better and better. You notice you know these things. You just stop thinking about it and just do it."

Between the two, Kamara is clearly more refined. A 6-foot-5-inch, 222-pounder on the perimeter, he has played receiver longer than Tate, ever since he was dodging traffic during street football games in New Jersey.

It's just that collegiate defenders don't speed by like cars on the street, instead looking to stick to receivers like Saran Wrap. Kamara learned early what he no longer could get away with.

"At the college level, you have to be precise in everything you do," Kamara said. "At the top of the route, you have to come out full speed, you have to stem the guy up because the corners are that much better."

There has been enough progress that Irish coach Charlie Weis said Kamara already "looks like he belongs." Tate, meanwhile, is trying not to look lost.

He rushed for 1,413 yards as a high school senior with 28 receptions, but both were more a byproduct of speed than technique, a matter of being fast rather than fastidious.

That has translated to some gasp-inducing grabs for the Irish. When Tate has emerged from heavy traffic with an unlikely catch, it's a nod to his abilities in another sport he plans to pursue at Notre Dame.

"Maybe baseball has something to do with it -- judgment of the ball," he said. "I tend to judge the ball better than some people, I guess. It gives me the ability to judge it and jump at the right time and come down with it."

"It expands every day," Ianello said. "We did one-on-ones the other day and I didn't let him run a 'go' route. Things like that keep him improving."

There is plenty of room for improvement with both. So the Irish's future at receiver is now -- and later.

Extra points

Tailback Robert Hughes returned to Notre Dame on Wednesday, a day after older brother Earl was shot to death. Weis will accompany Hughes back to Chicago on Thursday. Assistant coaches Corwin Brown, Mike Haywood and Ianello and a number of players will attend the funeral service Friday. Hughes, 24, was shot about 12:45 a.m. Tuesday in the 5300 block of West Wabansia Ave. in Chicago's North Austin community, according to police.